Local TV ad spend moves to programmatic, too

A new report from BIA/Kelsey forecasts that about 2% of the local spot television market (estimated to be worth $21.9 billion) will trade programmatically in 2016, but goes on to say that the market could ramp relatively quickly, if local follows the example set by the national television market.

“We’ve seen this pattern in the national television market as well, where programmatic has experienced explosive growth in the past year,” said Rick Ducey, managing director, BIA/Kelsey. “Local television has a number of complicating factors to sort out in order to accommodate widespread programmatic adoption, beginning with lack of measurement reportage—other than age and gender—different workflow software, and there needs to be integration of TV stations and platforms.”

Sixty percent of U.S. digital video ad spending likely will occur through programmatic channels this year, an increase of nearly 54% from a year ago, but that number could be significantly larger if more video ad inventory was available.

Indonesia and Malaysia are among the leaders when it comes to programmatic ad spending growth in the Asia Pacific region, and a new study says APAC’s six largest markets are expected to see a surge in spending over the next several years.